Wildlife walk in Hyde Park - mid January 2019

Yesterday, on a cold bright day, my camera took me out for another walk around Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens on a wildlife hunt.

Two Grey Squirrels pressed themselves flat along the trunk of a tree in the rose garden, hoping that I would not be able to see them.  It always amazes me as to how they can hang on like that!

Two naughty Green Rose-ringed Parakeets were on a bird feeder that is meant for the tiny birds in the park, while a third was sitting in the branches of a nearby shrub and waiting for his pals to move on.

From time-to-time the parakeets vacated the feeder - giving this Great Tit a chance to get near the food.

 Then it was time for a couple of Blue Tits to have a go before the cheeky Parakeets returned.

Snowdrops had started to flower in the grass in the Dell.

A tiny Blue Tit was sitting in a bowl inside a bird feeder that was hanging from a tree in the Dell.  It looked as though it had been imprisoned!

A heron was surveying the park from a great height - from the top of a tall bare-branched tree in the Dell.

A pair of handsome Gadwalls were swimming in the Serpentine.

A Mute swan was looking very strange as it put it's head underwater while gathering up whatever swans eat from the lake.

This is the same swan as it posed between bouts of underwater feeding.

A Great Crested Grebe in winter plumage was floating on the lake near the Lido café.  One foot was raised and there appeared to be an injury to it - having a slight cut at the end.

This did not unduly bother the bird, which was preening it's feathers while I was watching it.

These photographs are from a section of my walk around the park.  I hope to post the remaining pictures in the near future.

Autumn walk in Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens

A month or so ago my camera and I went for several walks in Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens.  There is always some interesting wildlife to see there.

A white mallard/domestic drake in the sunshine on the Serpentine

A handsome robin trying to disguise itself amongst the leaves on a pine tree in the Leaf Yard

A Mistle Thrush high up in the bare branches on a tree at the end of Kensington Gardens near Lancaster Gate

A Jay hopping around in the grass amongst the fallen leaves and berries from a rowan tree

Another robin posing on a thin branch at the base of the rowan tree

A Green Woodpecker popping it's head out of the long grass in order to see what I was up to while lurking with my camera underneath a nearby tree

These are just a few out of many photographs that I took during my walks and I have to say that I was really thrilled to have seen the Green Woodpecker.

Birds and a naughty squirrel in Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens

During a recent walk with my camera in Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, I took photographs of some of the birds that I saw on the lake.

This is a close-up of the top part of a black-headed gull, which has speckled feathers on it's face.

I love this Red-Crested Pochard drake - he has an amazing hair style and great-coloured red eyes and beak.

He was rather a naughty Red-Crested Pochard as he was hanging around this female Mallard.

In fact, there was a three-some going on as she also had a Mallard boyfriend who kept trying to chase off the Red-Crested Pochard.  Here they have become temporary friends as they line up at the edge of the water in order to beg for food from some tourists who were throwing titbits at the ducks that had swum over to them.

 A couple of Mute swans were also hanging around in this area of the lake.

One of the swans stood up and stretched it's majestic wings.

A Cormorant was fishing at the far end of the Long Water, near the fountains at the Italian Garden.  I managed to get a close-up of it when it surfaced for longer than a few seconds.  What a great-coloured eye and I love the pattern of the markings on the body and the splayed tail feathers.

On a raft at the other end of the park, near the Serpentine cafe, a juvenile Mute swan was resting it's head on it's body.

I disturbed it when I stood nearby taking photographs - so it sat up and showed me it's very cute face.

Just before I left the park, I came across white Mallard drake that was having a swim at the end of the Serpentine.

I left the park via the rose garden where I found a tree full of green Rose-Ringed Parakeets, one of which was eating from a bird feeder meant for the small birds that live in the park.  There were two bird feeders on the tree and a very, very naughty grey squirrel was doing acrobatics by hanging upside-down with it's tail wrapped round one of the tree's branches while holding onto the other feeder with it's front paws and stealing food from it.  Bad squirrel!!!!

Sunny birding walk in Hyde Park

A few weeks ago my camera took me for a walk in the sunshine - hard to believe with the miserable, dull, snowy weather that London is having to put up with at the moment.  Anyway, we went for a walk round the Serpentine lake in Hyde Park. 

There we saw a pair of Gadwalls.

A large Greylag goose with a strange white patchy face.

Maybe it is a hybrid goose?  Does anyone have any clues?

An Egyptian goose was enjoying the sunshine at the edge of the lake.

A juvenile Herring gull was floating around in the water.

A Black-headed gull was enjoying drifting around on the air currents - it was quite a windy day.

Another Black-headed gull was enjoying telling all the other birds off!

This Black-headed gull was just enjoying minding it's own business and floating around in the water.

Near the cafe half way along the Serpentine I came across this Starling standing on the edge of a large plant container and admiring all the flowers.

Another Starling was posing while hanging onto the edge of the curved railings.

In fact several Starlings were hanging onto the top of the curved railings by the cafe.

At the end of the lake, near the other cafe by the Serpentine, there was a group of three Mallards - two drakes (one white, one with normal colouring) and one female.  They always hang around together and I have seen them before on other walks round the Serpentine.

When I was leaving the park via the flower garden I came across a robin standing on top of a bench and enjoying the sunshine.

It then flew onto a branch in a nearby flowering shrub and tried to hide from me.

It was not at all afraid and eventually landed on the ground in front of the bench and posed very nicely in the sunshine.

I am now looking forward to more sunny days!

Cygnets, goslings and other wildlife - late May in Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens

I visited Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens again on 21st May.  My camera felt in need of some fresh air, so we went for another long walk around the lakes.

I first encountered this female coot, sitting comfortably on a nest of twigs and green weed.  I expect it smelt terrible, but I doubt if the coot noticed that.

Then, in the distance, I saw this female mute swan with her five cygnets swimming around on the Long Water in Kensington Gardens.

Here she is again against a backdrop of green reeds.  This was in a section of the Long Water between the bridge that divides Kensington Gardens from Hyde Park.  Again the family was a fair distance away from me, so impossible to get a close photograph.

There is a row of posts across the lake and these were topped with a row of wall-to-wall gulls - mainly young herring gulls.  There was a larger gull, which I think maybe a lesser-backed gull, causing trouble in the section of the posts where an unfortunate pair of coots had stupidly decided to build a nest.  The lesser-back has removed a juvenile herring gull from the top of the post and it can be seen flying off.

The gulls were trying to get at the coot's nest to see if there were any young (or dinner) on it yet.  The coots were understandably rather concerned about this and both of them were standing on the nest and squawking at the gulls.

A little later I saw the mute swan and her five cygnets sailing past the fallen tree on the Long Water.

When I got as far as the Serpentine in Hyde Park, I was greeted by a Great Crested Grebe - one of my favourite water birds.

A leucistic female mallard with very light beige feathers was modelling on the path at the side of the lake.

There was a wood pigeon standing under this rather lovely maroon shrub at the top of the waterfall above the Dell.  I think the shrub is an Acer, but hope someone will correct me if it is not.

The wood pigeon then posed artistically in front of the rocks, daisies and lovely spiky green plant.

There were still some beautiful foxgloves growing on the patch of land just past the bridge above the Dell.  I love foxgloves!

I was now on the other side of the Serpentine, not far away from the cafe, when I saw this leucistic Canada goose with an unusual white face.

Is this a mirror image?  There were two tiny cute fluffy cygnets staring at one another on the lake.

In fact, the family comprised of five cute fluffy little cygnets.

The female mute swan was being very protective of her brood and made a lunge at this greylag goose.  It did not need to be told twice and took off very quickly, flapping it's huge wings.

Then mum and the five cygnets sailed serenely along the lake.

This is a close-up of one of the fluffy cygnets having a bit of shut-eye after all the excitement of the day.

There was a pair of greylag geese on the grass near the lake.  They had five young goslings in tow.

It was obviously hard work checking for danger near the goslings.  Here one of the parents has a corkscrew neck while searching all round for any hidden predators.

Oblivious of any potential danger, the cute fluff-balls continued searching for food in the grass.

Across the path, on the Serpentine, a family of Canada geese sailed past.  Here are mum and dad with their five yellow goslings.

What cuties this lot are!!

I saw so much wildlife on this walk round the park that I have, so far, only managed to download half my selected photographs to my blog.  I will try to post the others in the very near future.